have perished from the severity of the climate, give but little room to expect any duplicate will ever be obtained during the present age; and the learned quotations that have been taken from it by those celebrated authors Linnæus and Fabricius in all their late editions, are incontestable proofs of the high degrees of estimation they entertained of it." The work, which embodied many of the rarities of this collection,[1] derived its principal value from the plates, which are greatly superior to any thing of the same kind that had previously appeared in this country; the descriptions are of little value, and intended, as Drury himself states, merely to assist the reader in observing the figures; but the localities are indicated with some care, and the trivial names of Linnæus to a certain extent applied, being the first attempt of the kind made in this country. The original deficiencies of the text, however, are now amply made up, and a high degree of value imparted to the work, even in the present state of the science, in a beautiful edition published three years ago under the editorial superintendence of Mr. Westwood, who has added much additional matter, and given, wherever practicable, an account of the different states of the species, in which the original work was wholly defective, not a single lepidopterous larva being either figured or described. This work, therefore, has on two separate occasions been of important service to the history of the noc-
- ↑ The collection was ultimately brought to the hammer and dispersed (May 23, 1805), realising the sum of £614 8s. 6d.
